Sentencing; Scoring of PRV 7; MCL 777.57(1)(b) (offender has 1 subsequent or concurrent felony conviction); MCL 777.57(2)(a); People v Jarvi; Michigan Sentencing Guidelines Manual (MSGM); Dictionary definitions

Holding that the trial court correctly scored PRV 7 at 10 points (although for the wrong reason), the court affirmed. There were two cases involved in this appeal – a 2021 case and a 2023 case. The charges in the 2021 case were still pending when defendant was charged in the 2023 case. He pled guilty to various charges in both cases the same day. He argued that the trial court erred in scoring “PRV 7 at 10 points in the 2023 case because: (1) [it] impermissibly relied on dismissed charges in the 2023 case as a concurrent conviction to support the score; and (2) his 2021 felony conviction was not concurrent with his 2023 conviction.” But the court found “no indication in the record that the trial court relied on any of the dismissed charges in the 2023 case as a concurrent conviction for purposes of scoring PRV 7 at 10 points. Rather, at the hearing on the motion to correct invalid sentence and for resentencing, [it] explicitly stated that it assessed PRV 7 at 10 points in sentencing on the 2023 case because it viewed defendant’s conviction in the 2021 case as a concurrent conviction.” PRV 7 is scored at “10 points where ‘[t]he offender has 1 subsequent or concurrent felony conviction.’” Based on language from Jarvi and definitions from the MSGM as well as both legal and lay dictionaries, the court found “that, if the defendant has one other felony conviction arising out of the same course of conduct as the sentencing offense, i.e., one ‘concurrent felony conviction,’ then PRV 7 is scored 10 points. Here the 2021 felony conviction for possession with intent to deliver less than 50 grams of cocaine” arose from conduct that occurred on or about 3/27/21, while his 2023 FIP “conviction arose from unrelated conduct that occurred on or about” 2/8/23. But “at the time of sentencing, the 2021 conviction was clearly a ‘subsequent felony conviction.’ MCL 777.57(2)(a) provides: ‘Score the appropriate point value if the offender was convicted of multiple felony counts or was convicted of a felony after the sentencing offense was committed.’” Given that he “was convicted of the 2021 offense after he committed the 2023 offense . . . pursuant to MCL 777.57(1)(b), 10 points should have been scored for PRV 7.”